across many parts of the country. this cloud continues to produce some outbreaks of rain through the afternoon. the rain will tend to ease away from scotland and northern ireland, so improving here, and the wind easing as well. through northern england and into wales and the south—west, some outbreaks of rain, patchy drizzly conditions towards the south—east. at 3pm today, rain starting to fringe into devon and cornwall. a lot of rain for the hills of wales. into east anglia and the south—east, some patchy rain and drizzle, temperatures around nine or 10 degrees. a lot of rain across north—west england. cumbria could see several centimetres and there is the risk of poor travelling conditions, and possibly some surface water and flooding. through northern ireland and scotland, brighter skies through the afternoon, with lighter winds and one or two showers. not too bad for the game at murrayfield in the six nations. in dublin however, some chance the rain will hang around. through this evening and tonight, the wet weather will continue for a time across england and wales, with the rain fizzling out. then a spell of drier weather before, here we go again, more rain into northern ireland and western scotland before the end of the night.

chilly across north—east scotland. most other places frost—free. into tomorrow, the rain sinks south across northern ireland and scotland, setting in again across north—west england and wales. to the south—east, a fair amount of cloud, some brighter glimpses at times, and brightening up eventually across northern ireland and northern scotland, with some sunshine and heavy, blustery showers as things begin to cool off by the end of the day. another mild day across the south—east. a mild day for man utd against southampton, perhaps some patchy rain at times. into monday, a weather front swings south and eastwards, and behind it some sunshine, blustery showers with hail and thunder. it will start to feel a bit cooler. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the former labour foreign secretary david miliband has said the party is at its weakest for 50 years. jeremy corbyn‘s allies says negative interventions aren't helping the party.

several major news organisations have been excluded from a briefing by president's trump's spokesman at the white house. the bbc, cnn, and new york times were among those told they weren't invited. iraqi forces have now entered parts of western mosul in what is expected to be a dangerous battle to remove so called islamic state from iraq's second largest city. khaled khateeb, a syrian cinematographer whose film about the war has been nominated for an oscar has been stopped from flying to the us for the ceremony. now on bbc news, the travel show. this week, camping in churches. i'm going to try to go to sleep now, and try and forget that i'm entirely surrounded by graves. a spanish celebration of pork.

and getting to grips with sudan. wrestling a guy in front of 2,000 people is a bit further than what i usually do. this week, i'm in kent, in england's south—east corner. this is the city of canterbury, a place of pilgrimage ever since the 12th century. apparently, if you look up at the stained glass windows, ah, here we go, one of the panels depicts a fairly extraordinary scene. really, the thing that put canterbury cathedral on the map. it's got thomas beckett, who, at the time, was the archbishop of canterbury, being killed by two knights with swords and it was his murder and martyrdom that made this a place for pilgrims to come from across the world. britain's ancient places of worship

have always attracted visitors. ca nterbury‘s competition comes from sites like york minster, westminster abbey and even the holy island of lindisfarne, but around the country there are religious treasures to be found in the smallest places. this is fordwich, about two miles down river from canterbury. with 370 local inhabitants, they reckon this is the smallest town in the uk. you wouldn't know it now, but tiny fordwich used to be an important port. it was here they unloaded the french stone that was used to build the cathedral. here, in this barely used norman church, is my bed for the night. so it's very reassuring walking through a graveyard to get to your accommodation.

i'm here for a spot of "champing", church camping. it's available at 12 historic venues around the country. beautiful ancient sites that are rarely, if ever, used as places of mass worship any more. it's a very big hotel room. money raised from letting champers like me stay means the crumbling buildings are spared a slow, inevitable decline. there's 1,400 years of history here. you can see from the architecture, that there would be little bits from every generation because we all make our mark on it, often trying to modernise it, whetherfor the good or the bad is another question. so i'm keen to give this champing a go, so where will i be sleeping? you'll be sleeping possibly in the executive pews because it's meant to be the warmest part of the church.

it's good that it's a box pew because it stops the drafts. 0h, here we go. so, here you are. there are a few nice touches here — that good old stable, the tea tray and a basket of goodies with biscuits and wine. so i guess there's a risk, what if people are here drinking and carrying on? there is an agreement that you have to agree to in terms of how you behave in the building as you hire it, as it were. particularly here, it speaks silence and good behaviour and one hopes that people would enjoy that and appreciate that. i mean, it's only 6.00pm and it's already cold. safe to say, champing is usually more of a summer activity, at least the pub next door looks like it's going to be warm. purely medicinal this g&t. people have said, you know, waking up in this amazing place in the summer,

with the bird's singing and the sun pouring through the windows, is just something very special. we are given historic churches by the church of england where there's no longer a worshipping congregation, but the church is of such significant historic and cultural value that it needs protecting and preserving for the future. why would anyone want to go champing? because you get to spend such a lot of time in truly amazing historic buildings. the way people usually visit historic churches, and i've seen it, is that they go to the door, they pop their head round and they go — oh, there's a font, there's an altar, there's some very nice stained glass, that's very pretty, and then they leave. what you miss by doing that is, you don't get to dwell in the place and really get a feeling for it. somebody at the pub just told me that tonight is supposed to be the coldest night of the year.

so that's good, as i head into my unheated church room for the night. i've got my air bed, sleeping bag. so i've just got into bed and it's quite comfy, actually. i'm quite cosy, given how cold it is, and i can see my breath. i'm going to try and go to sleep now and try to forget i'm entirely surrounded by graves. it is quite cold, it's quite noticeably cold.

i think there's a jolly good reason that champing is only done during the summer because these old churches don't have nice central heating, but it's oddly peaceful, actually. it's cold, but peaceful. deciding to come champing in the dead of winter was a really terrible idea. knocking morning. hi, how are you doing? 0h... i thought you might want some coffee. you are my favourite person in the world. brilliant, and some bacon sandwiches as well.

welcome! how did you get on? i mean, it's the middle of winter, when you don't normally run champing. well, i was going to say, there is a reason why we run champing from spring to the end of summer. yeah. but how about the atmosphere and the experience? i tell you what, i was surprised actually because i'm quite a scardy cat, but really the second i sort of actually settled down to sleep, it was really peaceful. yes. it's really lovely. you're lying there and there's no sound from outside and the atmosphere was surprisingly quiet, sort of calm, all through the night i had no moment of being, sort of, alarmed. the champing season starts around mid—march, a far more sensible time of the year to try this. bookings cost around £40 a head, but for that you get a historic building all to yourself. so if you're thinking of heading to south—east

england in the nearfuture, here are some things you need to know. there are may day events happening all over the country, but one of our picks is the jack in the green festival in hastings, in west sussex. four days of folk dancing and music culminates in a wild costumed parade in the old town. the roots of this go way back, to the 16th and 17th centuries. those clear spring days should be an ideal time to try to out the world's thinnest tall building, brighton's i360. it only opened last year on the city's seafront, marking the entrance to the old iconic west pier which burned down in 2003. and in hampshire, events are planned throughout the year to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the pride and prejudice author, jane austen.

the main focus for events is injune, but even now there are exhibitions, tours and performances taking place around her home city of winchester. next up this week. our global gourmet heads to andalucia to take in a festival that shows, like no other, just how much the spanish love their pork. still to come. ben continues his trip around sudan, this time, it's safe to say he's finding the locals quite a handful. you grab the arms, you grab the legs. i think you need to get them on their back and then you win. the travel show, your essential guide wherever you're heading. welcome to the slice of the show that tackles your travel questions.

coming up, a heated discussion about dubai in july. but first, skiers heading for winter park, in the american rockies, can take the train this winter. the winter park express runs from denver's union station every weekend until the end of march. one way fares, for the two—hour trip, range from $39 to $59 with no extra fees for skis or snowboards and there are easy connections at union station with the new railink from the city's airport. next, neil smurdon faces an el ight hour stop over at hong kong airport and wants to know... can we exit the airport and go into hong kong? if so, what happens to our suitcases as we don't want to drag them around? so long as you have a passport from one of 160 approved countries, including almost every nation in europe and many in asia

and the americas, it's easy. make sure your bags are tagged to your final destination, then you won't need to wait around at the baggage reclaim, you can go straight through passport control into hong kong without problem, just be ready to show your onward boarding pass as proof of your travel plans. then take advantage of the superb airport express train link direct from the terminal into the city. you'll need 100 hong kong dollars in cash rather than a credit card to buy a same—day return ticket. take the train to the last stop, on hong kong island, where you'll emerge beside one of the world's great harbours ready for a few hours of exploration and eating before the 24—minute trip back to the airport. rich and tara ballard are looking ahead to summer and, fortunately, contacted the travel show before they booked. just a quick email to ask whether to travel to dubai in the first week ofjuly.

will it be too hot to do any sightseeing? yes. stay away from the gulf in summer, unless you're merely changing planes. 0nejuly i was flying via dubai and made the mistake of building in a day to go sightseeing, the a0 degrees plus heat was debilitating. i resorted to flagging down taxis just to travel a few hundred meters in order to get some brief air conditioned respite. sure there are plenty of chilled indoor attractions, but that's not the point of a dazzling city such as dubai. i enjoy the gulf states from november to february, but during the remaining eight months of the year you'll find me elsewhere. sharri rendall is heading to tel aviv in the last week in april for a friend's 40th birthday. my friend is working during most of the days, so i'll be free to roam on my own. is it fun and is it safe? late spring is an excellent time to be in tel aviv. it's a beautiful, welcoming cosmopolitan city which, despite being barely a century old,

has loads to see. exploring beyond tel aviv is easy, notably on the spectacular train ride through thejudaean hills to jerusalem, taking 80—minutes forjust 20 shekels, which is about £4 or $5. travelling as a single woman presents no special risks, though the danger of terrorism is ever present. whether you're considering the balkans, the baltic or bogota, the travel show is here to help, so email your question and i'll do my very best to find you an answer. from me, simon calder, the global guru, bye for now and see you next time. finally this week, we're back on the road in sudan. it's a country scarred by conflict and largely inaccessible for tourists, but with a bit of resolve and some careful planning, it is possible to get there.

last time, benjamin zand explored some of the country's impressive archaeological sites, this week he's in the capital khartoum, trying something a little more hands on. every friday at a.00pm in haj yusef, khartoum, this ancient sport, originally thought up by nubian pharaohs, is still being practiced. for thousands of years, wrestling has been a fixture amongst the nubian tribes in sudan, but it's notjust a game. the nuba are originally from the nubian mountains in southern sudan but now, as unrest pushes them away from their homeland, the sport has found another home in the capital, and for the locals it's a huge event. things are heating up here.

these guys go in pretty hard. from the start, basically anybody can get involved, theyjust have an empty arena and all the little kids, kind of, jump in and wrestle each other and anybody can try it out. it's quite cool. i probably should try it out, but i'm not going to. after seeing how heated the matches were getting, i was happy i was only a spectator, but quickly i realised the organisers had other plans. i was told an international exhibition match was going to be taking place, one between sudan and britain. and, yes, you guessed it, i was going to be representing britain. i'm usually up for doing a lot of things, but wrestling a guy, in front of 2,000 people, is a bit further than what i usually go. so, i'm a bit nervous, the guy is kind of scary. as preparations are made for the big showdown, i was given the chance to meet my opponent. all right, so this is my opponent. let's shake your hand, i look forward to it. here we go, i'm scared, i'm kind of scared. all right, sweet.

that guy looks like he wants to kill me. then it was time to head out into the arena. oh, god. wish me luck, wish me luck! ah, no, they actually think this is like britain against sudan. i am very scared. he doesn't know what i'm saying. i've got my knee braces on, time to lose my life. all right, here we go, let's go. i shake his hand. i don't even know what the rules are. i actually don't know what the rules are. this is going to end so badly. it actually started quite well, that's until my opponent took off his shirt in a display of ultimate warrior in this man on man death match. what's going on? how did this happen? i spent the duration of the match running away from the opponent. i learnt later that you're not really meant to move backwards, only forwards, but they let me off as i was knew it and they probably knew i was going to lose.

as things heated up, i used my premium agility skills, dodged my opponent's attempts to bring me down. with the crowd on my side, i decided to go in for the kill. but i failed massively, and i lost. as it was all over, i was happy i could now retreat to the changing room and think about what i'd just attempted, but in a celebration of british—sudanese relations, my opponent decided a parade around the arena would be more suitable. oh, my god, i lead a strange life! whilst in the arms of my new sudanese comrade, i had time to reflect on what i was seeing. sudan is a very divided country when it comes to things like religion and ethnicity, but here, in the wrestling arena, it doesn't matter where you're from.

even a young lad from liverpool can earn respect. now it's all finished, all i can say is, this could be a bit of a daunting place to walk into, but, after that experience, and the love everyone showed me, all i can say is that was unbelievable. and a cheering crowd as well, and being carried around. i can get used to that, honestly. what a day, what a day. well, that's all we've got time for in this week's travel show. coming up next week: skiing in the danger zone. six years after the disastrous meltdown at japan's fukishima nuclear plant, carmen heads for the slopes nearby to find out how skiers are being enticed back. so dojoin us then, if you can. in the meantime, if you'd like to keep up with what we're up to out on the road, you can sign up to our

social media feeds. but for now, from me, christa larwood, and the rest of the travel show team here in south—east england, it's goodbye. hello. we are not going to see anything as windy as storm doris this weekend, but still some quite blustery conditions around, and some wet conditions too, as captured by one of our weather watchers in fife earlier on today. through the rest of the day we keep the blustery winds. there will be some rain at times. all courtesy of this lump of cloud, working its way in from the atlantic. with it, strong south—westerly

winds, bringing pretty mild air across many parts of the country. this cloud continues to produce some outbreaks of rain through the afternoon. the rain will tend to ease away from scotland and northern ireland, so improving here, and the wind easing as well. through northern england and into wales and the south—west, some outbreaks of rain, patchy drizzly conditions towards the south—east. at 3pm today, rain starting to fringe into devon and cornwall. a lot of rain for the hills of wales. into east anglia and the south—east, some patchy rain and drizzle, temperatures around nine or 10 degrees. a lot of rain across north—west england. cumbria could see several centimetres and there is the risk of poor travelling conditions, and possibly some surface water and flooding. through northern ireland and scotland, brighter skies through the afternoon, with lighter winds and one or two showers. not too bad for the game at murrayfield in the six nations. in dublin however, some chance the rain will hang around. through this evening and tonight, the wet weather will continue for a time across england and wales, with the rain fizzling out. then a spell of drier weather

before, here we go again, more rain into northern ireland and western scotland before the end of the night. chilly across north—east scotland. most other places frost—free. into tomorrow, the rain sinks south across northern ireland and scotland, setting in again across north—west england and wales. to the south—east, a fair amount of cloud, some brighter glimpses at times, and brightening up eventually across northern ireland and northern scotland, with some sunshine and heavy, blustery showers as things begin to cool off by the end of the day. another mild day across the south—east. a mild day for man utd against southampton, perhaps some patchy rain at times. into monday, a weather front swings south and eastwards, and behind it some sunshine, blustery showers with hail and thunder. it will start to feel a bit cooler. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11: the former labour foreign secretary, david miliband, says his party

is now at its weakest in 50 years after the copeland byelection defeat. jeremy corbyn insists his leadership is not to blame. iraqi forces have now entered parts of western mosul in what is expected to be a dangerous battle to remove so called islamic state from the city. the white house has excluded the bbc, the new york times and others from a media briefing. the block came just hours after president trump used a major speech to attack sections of the press. as you saw throughout the entire campaign, and even now, the fake news doesn't tell the truth. also coming up — the national trust receives an unexpected gift — the island that inspired its creation.